Alphax:GypsyJoker: Vodka Zombie: Alphax: Montezuma's Revenge.. I had the Apple IIe version, and lots of friends and family played the crap out of it.

HHGG text adventure. Played it, but never finished. Fairly creative, but it got especially complicated after you get to trigger the Infinite Improbability drive.

I don't know anyone who's finished HHGG, but almost everyone has played it.

Yeah. The Infocom games always had at least one action that you'd probably never figure out on your own. HHGG had the sequence where you had to throw the mail into the air (assuming you brought the mail with you) to distract the flying robot, then do a couple of other things in succession, in order to... hell, I don't even remember why you did this one.

Great fun, otherwise.

That was the VERY challenging part to get your hands on a Babelfish. Trial and error.

The Babelfish was comparatively easy. The nastiest puzzle was feeding the dog at the beginning of the game. If you don't do that, there's a scene near the end where you automatically lose, and have to play the entire game over again.

Tyrone Slothrop:The Babelfish was comparatively easy. The nastiest puzzle was feeding the dog at the beginning of the game. If you don't do that, there's a scene near the end where you automatically lose, and have to play the entire game over again.

Feed it the stale grilled cheese sandwich. Else, it'll swallow that alien invasion fleet.. and you'll be onboard at the time.

Anyone remember Utopia for Intellevision? My friend and I played the hell of that one. It's the urtext of the "god-game" and real-time strategy. It's been called "Civilization .5" for a reason. For 1981 it was an incredible feat of engineering.

Solty Dog:I say Shadowgate, The Uninvited and Deja Vu. I know those weren't popular with my friends.

I still don't know anyone else other than me that beat shadowgate. I freaking loved all three of those games... and got grounded for covertly calling the nintendo power hotline to find out how to get past a part in shadowgate.

It is nice that someone mentioned 7 cities of gold. That game rocked just for the random map generator and open world style. There were things in that game that people say later games invented.

Another awesome game was M.U.L.E. My whole family would play it on the C64 together. EA actually published this. They used to be cool.

The baseball game FTFA was fun. Nolan Ryan's curve was so wicked, if you pitched a slower pitch, you could actually touch both edges of the screen with a curve ball and still get it back over the plate.

While the Crescent Hawk's Inception was fun, and I have the LAM, the sequal game was way better and immersive,

Karateka, Castle Wolfenstein, Load Runner were pretty well known. Not sure how popular, Impossible Mission was, but it was wicked fun. "Stay a while, Stay Forever!"

/the invisible ink book was the only way I could could get through most of the HHGG. Freaking holding tea and no-tea at the same time!

Vodka Zombie:Alphax: Montezuma's Revenge.. I had the Apple IIe version, and lots of friends and family played the crap out of it.

HHGG text adventure. Played it, but never finished. Fairly creative, but it got especially complicated after you get to trigger the Infinite Improbability drive.

I don't know anyone who's finished HHGG, but almost everyone has played it.

I finished it but only after reading the book. That game didn't make a lick of sense without that. :)

Now I want to play it again. Good thing I have an IF interpreter on my tablet and [nearly] all of the Infocom z-machine files. I'll probably play it on a computer, tho, so I can type easier. I wonder if I can find a CLI that mimics a green CRT. I used to have one for the Mac that was amazing...

phedex:Solty Dog: I say Shadowgate, The Uninvited and Deja Vu. I know those weren't popular with my friends.

I still don't know anyone else other than me that beat shadowgate. I freaking loved all three of those games... and got grounded for covertly calling the nintendo power hotline to find out how to get past a part in shadowgate.

I loved both of those games but pretty damn near impossible back then without outside help. The torch mechanic in Shadowgate pretty much ensured you would eventually run out of torches the first go round. Deja vu was much more forgiving but I remember getting about 80% through the game and then brick wall. Just no idea where or what to do next.

Still haven't beat either still to this day.

The Uninvited combined the worst of both games. a entire crap load of items you would never use AND a time mechanic. Never could get in to it like I could the other 2

Alphax:Feed it the stale grilled cheese sandwich. Else, it'll swallow that alien invasion fleet.. and you'll be onboard at the time.

The problem is that the game doesn't indicate you have any money in your inventory to buy the uninviting cheese sandwich; you just have to know that you can. And realizing you have to enjoy the Vogon poetry to get to the second verse isn't very intuitive either. Most of the puzzles are easy to sort out by examining objects, but there's a few that require some mind-reading by the player.

Gunderson:Elevator Action, H.E.R.O. and 7 Cities of Gold are the first 3 underrated games that come to mind from the 80s

I played the crap out of 7CoG when I was a kid. No wonder I latched on to Civ and Colonization as I grew older. One of these days I really gotta try Civ 5, but for now I need to make time to try March of the Eagles.

Airborne Ranger (probably one of the earliest stealth games I could remember)Silent Service (OK, maybe not as obscure, but I played the FARK out of it)Red Storm RisingLegacy of the AncientsHeart of Africa (made by Seven Cities folks)The Movie Monster Game

I ask this almost every game thread with games like these. Does anyone remember a learning game (I remember playing it in the 5th grade so around 1989), where you were put into different scenarios and had to combine chemicals from beakers to create something to get out of the scenario?

For example, you were trapped in a valley between two mountains. You would have to combine some helium with something else and it would create a hot air balloon and you could escape. If you screwed up the mixture you might make an apple or a wrench or something and it would be a waste of your chemical.

That is the best and only example I can give. I can't even remember more of the game than that one part so I don't even know how to google it. I remember enjoying that game back then but didn't play it much at school because we were only allowed to play if recess was inside which is wasn't often.

nbrfwhoooo:I ask this almost every game thread with games like these. Does anyone remember a learning game (I remember playing it in the 5th grade so around 1989), where you were put into different scenarios and had to combine chemicals from beakers to create something to get out of the scenario?

For example, you were trapped in a valley between two mountains. You would have to combine some helium with something else and it would create a hot air balloon and you could escape. If you screwed up the mixture you might make an apple or a wrench or something and it would be a waste of your chemical.

That is the best and only example I can give. I can't even remember more of the game than that one part so I don't even know how to google it. I remember enjoying that game back then but didn't play it much at school because we were only allowed to play if recess was inside which is wasn't often.

phimuskapsi:nbrfwhoooo: I ask this almost every game thread with games like these. Does anyone remember a learning game (I remember playing it in the 5th grade so around 1989), where you were put into different scenarios and had to combine chemicals from beakers to create something to get out of the scenario?

For example, you were trapped in a valley between two mountains. You would have to combine some helium with something else and it would create a hot air balloon and you could escape. If you screwed up the mixture you might make an apple or a wrench or something and it would be a waste of your chemical.

That is the best and only example I can give. I can't even remember more of the game than that one part so I don't even know how to google it. I remember enjoying that game back then but didn't play it much at school because we were only allowed to play if recess was inside which is wasn't often.

Might have been the Dr. Brain series, like Island of Dr. Brain

[www.magnetmarks.com image 680x226]

Nope. Neither of those. I seem to think your character was an astronaut. The game was in color - I remember that. I am not even sure what sort of computer it was played on unfortunately to help narrow it down.